Monday 17 March Johannesburg, via San Paulo (Brazil) Lima (Peru)

It was a long and hard slog to get here in Lima Peru. More so for Pie and I as we had the Prize Giving Breakfast for the DJ Rally on Sunday morning, and we had to be at the airport at 12h20 on Sunday. The DJ Rally was on Friday and Saturday, which means we had to drive to Durban on Thursday already, and since Thursday it has just been running and riding old bikes in the Rally, (1936 and older) very little sleep and long days in the saddle. So it is understandable that I fell asleep at San Paulo Brazil on a little bench during the 4 hour lay-over, and I should have known to sleep on my hand-luggage, well I did for a while but then it fell off the bench and was next to me on the floor, yes, not good enough as someone saw an opportunity which resulted in him stealing my lap-top from my pannier bag right from under my snoring nose. I am just thankful that they stole the computer and left the bag next to me as there was a rather large amount of US $ hidden in a file inside the bag, as well as a 2nd cell-phone and 2 GPS’s, all my bike papers and my Passport.

We finally arrived in Lima this morning after 22 hours of traveling, took a taxi to the KTM Guys where we discovered that not all the work on some of the bikes were done. I blame this on the language difference as they say they could not do the work as we did not pay them, and we have many many WhatsApp messages asking for the Invoices to pay, asking for the Payment Link to pay and then the response we got was simply “have a good day.” We thought they would continue with all the work but payment was difficult as they did not want us to pay with cash or credit cards on arrival but insisted we follow a link and pay over the internet in the local money, Soles. I am sure it would have been easy, but all the spaces to fill in on the Link was in Spanish which resulted in hours of trying to pay. On Pie’s bike they did not do the clutch and on Peens’s bike they did not change the tires as he was not happy with the ones they could fit, so I see interesting times ahead on the 1st gravel or muddy road as his grip will be very poor:

We bumped into another fellow world traveler who comes from Brazil and he told us where to go in Brazil and where not to go, he was at KTM to just get an oil-service as he is on his way back home and still has 5000km to go and it has been 10 000km since he had the oil changed.

It is only Pie, Rocky and I that are here, the other 3 went to watch the Moto GP Race in Argentina this weekend and will only arrive later tonight, so the three of us are going out for dinner with our “Fixer” Ernesto tonight to discuss our plan to get our TIPS reversed. The Custom guys has to come to the workshop to see our bikes are still there and has not been sold, then they want proof that we are back in the country and then they release our bikes and the TIPS’ 90 days begins ticking-up again (the 90 days Import Permits were frozen before we left as we knew we would need more than 90 days.) The problem is that they have stopped stamping Passports at the airport, so we could not get proof we are back, so the Immigration Lady said we should scan the QR code and get proof that way by filling in forms on line, but the QR codes stickers has seen better days and that did not work as planned, so its back to the drawing board.

Pie was very happy to see his bike, we were happy to not have to stand too close to him as he has been wearing these clothes since Sunday morning at the DJ Prize giving:

Here are a few random photos of the DJ Rally;

Me on my faithful Nora, a 1936 Norton 16 H

I hit a large pothole in the rain (potholes become invisible in the rain when they fill up with water.) My light

fell out and I rode over it, almost causing me to fall.

Pie had some Magneto Problems on his very special Gnome Rhone bike and had to throw in the towel at kilometer 270.

Proof below that I did start the Rally with a light:

But as I want to one day sit in the Old Age Home and read these Posts on my Blog and then fondly remember these trips, I also know I need to remind myself then of the days when it was tuff, like today was. I suspect the little sleep, absence of a shower and the frustration of traveling all added to my big frustration of having my MacBook Air stolen, and I name the computer by name as I will in future write a letter to them when I get the time to complain. Today I had to discover the computer stolen, then battle with Google Translate to “speak” to the hotel receptionist to help me with getting a taxi to take me to an Apple Store. Another battle through rush-hour traffic and another Google Translate episode at the store, but eventually I was back in a taxi, fighting through the traffic back to the hotel. But as you all know, to set up the new Computer you need to put in your email address and Apple Password, and can you believe that this new computer does not have the @ button on the keyboard. I googled this and found some comments saying I have to press the arrow and number 2, there were other options as well but I failed. I was close to tears, how can the keyboard not have a @ ??????????? So I re-packed everything in the box and the original packaging and decided to take another taxi there and back and return it or swap it for a USA Type keyboard, if they had one, but I think it was at this stage that Murphy decided he has had enough fun with me and left me at reception where with professor Google’s help I was able to ask the receptionist if he could speak to them on the phone and find out how I press a @, and turns out you press Option and Q together. There are several other keys in different places, but I have set up the new computer and the Blog will continue. I tried doing it on the phone but that is VERY VERY difficult. Another luck is that a Mac Book Air here in Lima is about 20% cheaper than in South Africa, so not all is lost.

I hope we wil be able to take the bikes out of the storage after the Customs has been there for the inspection.

Keep Well You-All

Fleisch